The day following the interview, O’Reilly talked about Trump and his campaign on the show. O’Reilly also denied that he knew anything about the reason behind Trump’s reconciliation with the Fox News Channel. “He’s a phenomenon, this man,” O’Reilly told Yahoo News’ Katie Couric on Wednesday. “The liberal press doesn’t want a guy saying, ‘Well, we’re gonna build a fence! We’re gonna round up all the illegal aliens and deport them!’” he said. “The liberal press goes wild about that.”

“He was talking about the ‘coyotes,’ the people smugglers — not the regular Mexican people,” O’Reilly said. “He didn’t articulate it that way. It was a verbal mistake… I know what he was saying, but he didn’t say it in a way that was clear.”

“I’ve defended Trump a lot,” O’Reilly said. “I think Trump is good for America because he’s drawing so many people in and they’re paying attention to the debates.”